If your processor is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64 x86_64] compatible, you should use Arch64 unless you plan to use [[#What_will_I_miss_in_Arch64.3F|unsupported]] software. Note that Arch32 does not support more than 3GB of RAM without a custom PAE-enabled kernel. It's recommended you use Arch64 if your system has more memory.

+

If your processor is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64 x86_64] compatible, you should use Arch64 unless you plan to use [[#What_will_I_miss_in_Arch64.3F|unsupported]] software. Note that Arch32 does not support more than 3GB of RAM without a custom PAE-enabled kernel. It is recommended you use Arch64 if your system has more memory.

==How can I install Arch64?==

==How can I install Arch64?==

Revision as of 16:51, 23 October 2011

This template has only maintenance purposes. For linking to local translations please use interlanguage links, see Help:i18n#Interlanguage links.

How do I determine if my processor is x86_64 compatible?

Look for the "flags" entry. If you see the "lm" flag then your processor is x86_64 compatible.

Or you can run this command:

$ grep "^flags.*\blm\b" /proc/cpuinfo

Should I use the 32 or 64 bit version of Arch?

If your processor is x86_64 compatible, you should use Arch64 unless you plan to use unsupported software. Note that Arch32 does not support more than 3GB of RAM without a custom PAE-enabled kernel. It is recommended you use Arch64 if your system has more memory.

How can I install Arch64?

How complete is the port?

Will I have all the packages from my 32-bit Arch I am used to?

The Repositories are ported and almost everything is up to date. At most, the x86_64 versions are only hours behind the i686 ones.

Occasionally, a package in AUR will only have 'i686' listed, but often they work for 64-bit too, just try adding 'x86_64'.

Why 64bit?

It is usually faster (Especially true for Video/Audio encoding, Scientific applications etc.) and as an added bonus also inherently a little more secure due to the nature of Address space layout randomization and Position-independent code.
Limiting oneself to 32bit and the disadvantages that come with it makes little sense these days unless done for a very good reason. Programmers also increasingly tend to care more about 64bit since almost all mainstream X86 CPUs that have been coming out are making use of the 64bit extension.

For further details watch our Arch64_ToDoS. There you will find a list comparing 32-/64bit package versions.

How can I file bugs?

Simply use Arch's flyspray but select x86_64 in the Architecture field if you think it is a port-related problem!

What repositories should I set up for pacman to use?

All repositories are supported for the port.

How can I patch existing PKGBUILDs for use with Arch64?

We add to all ported packages this variable:

arch=('i686' 'x86_64')

Add small patches directly to the sources and md5sums area but use for complete different sources:

What will I miss in Arch64?

Nothing, really. Almost all applications support 64-bit by now or are in the transition to become 64-bit compatible.

The biggest problem are packages that are either closed source or contains x86-specific assembly that is cumbersome to port to 64-bit (typical for emulators).

These applications were previously problematic, but are now available in the AUR and work fine:

Acrobat Reader is not available in 64-bit, but you can run the 32-bit version in compatibility mode. There are also many other open source alternatives that can be used to read PDF files.

Everything else should work perfectly fine. If you miss any Arch32 package in our port and you know that it will compile on x86_64 (perhaps you have found it as native packages in another 64-bit distribution), just contact the developers or request a new package in the forums.

Can I run 32-bit apps inside Arch64?

Yes!

You can install lib32-* libraries from the multilib repository. To use this repository, you should add the following lines to your pacman.conf:

[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

At this time (august 2010), it contains wine, skype and flashplugin. Furthermore, a multilib compiler is available.

Some 32-bit apps (like OpenOffice) may require additional bindings. The following lines can be placed in rc.local to ensure you get all you need for the 32-bit apps (assuming /mnt/arch32 is mounted in fstab):

Note: If the system has the base-devel package installed, users must replace the [extra] versions with the [mutlilib] versions as shown below.

Note: gcc-multilib is capable of building 32bit and 64bit code. You can safely install multilib-devel and remove base-devel on x86_64. See https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=102828 for more information.

Chroot

To use a i686 chroot (installation with i686 iso "quickinstall" is recommended for the quick way to install it inside Arch64 or see Arch64 Install bundled 32bit system), install "linux32" wrapper pkg from current to make the chroot behave like a real i686 system. Then use this script to login into the chroot environment as root:

to share sources from host to chroot system for pkg building used in /etc/makepkg.conf.

Can I upgrade/switch my system from i686 to x86_64 without reinstalling?

Yes. A forum thread has been created here which outlines steps taken to successfully migrate an install from 32 to 64 bit without losing any configs/settings/data. Note: A large external drive was used for the transfer.

However, you can also start the system with the Arch64 install CD, mount the disk, backup anything you may want to keep that is not a 32-bit binary (e.g: /home & /etc), and install.